Question for all our rules lawyers out there:

Does the latest Taboo stack with scope?

“This attack may target a non-Elite enemy up to one location away from its standard range, ignoring the aloof and retaliate keywords.” Taboo basically reads "Standard Range +1 Location away".

Scope as a reaction allows a Firearm to target adjacent location. Would that be considered the new standard range then and allow the Springfield plus Scope to target two locations away? WHich would be awesome and very unique

If not it would mean, you could gain basically the same effect but better with sticking the newly tabood scope to your shiny 4 or 5-xp-firearm. you would only ever take the springfield to save on some xp as the BAR or the Lightning Gun are still better in their own right. You could always take a higher value two-handed firearm and stick a scope on it for whatever xp your weapon costs +3xp for the scope. And lets face it, which guardian skims on the xp concerning the primary weapon?

Don't get me wrong. This new version stands head and shoulders above the old one. But XP should not be a concern for the guardians primary. So I would always take the best or most flexible base weapon and stick scope to it, if wanted to target adjacent. But targeting two locations away by adding a scope on top? That would really allow some unique camper playstyle in MP where you guard your team by sitting at a center location and picking everything off from a distance.

This enemy can be an annoyance with that poisoning attack. Even if you can hit the 3 Evade target reliably, that's still a loss of actions as it chases you.

The ability gain conditions cause it to stay on an Ancient location with clues, which you can potentially use to leave it behind. You won't be able to clear that location without confronting this enemy again, but it will be easier to clear all the others. You could deal with the location it guards last, or even just consider it abandoned.

Or maybe you just take the vengeance point.

This is quite an underrated card. It gives you (your ally) +1 health and + 1 sanity for $1 without the need of spending the cost of an action. In most cases, a free action is more valuable than $1. So this card fares better than Leather Coat and Cherished Keepsake, both of which are very fine cards in themselves. Trusted also cost one less than other comparisons like Leather Jacket, and it certainly fares better than Fine Clothes, a more situational card that cost an action to play. In most cases, I also like Trusted over other lv. 0 healing cards ex. (Soothing Melody) because spending actions to do passive healing is, a many have pointed out, one of the least efficient things to do in the game. Another selling point of this card which the above mentioned cards don't have is that it not only gives you more health/sanity protection but gives your ally more mileage. Putting 2 Trusted on allies such as Aquinnah all the sudden turn her into 3h/6s worrior and Beat Cop into a 5h/4s Sergeant. Trusted really maximize their power, getting more values out of their already very strong xp ability.

Winifred Habbamock loves this card. Being able to access to Track Shoes is a pretty good deal. She's using many ability cards that allow you to draw cards from your deck on top of her own ability. You will run through your whole deck many times most of the times anyway. A bigger deck means you'll take more time to cycle it and get less horror from that. Same for Patrice Hathaway

One or even two of Versatile can help to counter some nasty weaknesses as Doomed -> Accursed Fate -> The Bell Tolls or treacheries as Beyond the Veil

When this card appeared, it was the first real big gun, with Shotgun being a little bit in a weird spot.

Unfortunately, by now it has been overpassed by a range of other weapons in every aspect:

• High value: Of course the Cyclopean Hammer which is slightly cheaper, same XP and offers the chance to go higher with Reliable x2 and a potentially unlimited amount of 3-damage hits.

• Big damage per round: Flamethrower does 4 damage per attack, comes with more Ammo and is cheaper. It has been tabooed to 8xp 6xp now though, yet if you get 1 and refill it with Ammo, you're still in a better spot.

• 3 damage, 3 times: Brand of Cthugha (4) is significantly cheaper, uses a vastly unused slot for , and offers the flexibility to not spend an ammo for 1hp left. It is a bit the M1918 BAR, with just a little less peak damage but also much cheaper and leaving your hands free. The only advantage of the Lightning Gun is in case you plan on refilling the ammos with Extra Ammunition or Venturer as doing so is useless on the Brand of Cthugha/M1918 BAR.

• Honorific mention to the Holy Spear that can deal 3 damages also more times if you can generate enough tokens find a way to unseal the tokens on it.

So unfortunately, no matter how cool and thematic this gun is, the +5 makes it a complete overkill that is now obsolete in the vast majority of the cases. This could still find play in Expert mode where shooting at 10+ can still be a strategy but it still requires a lot of build around to maintain a constant flow of ammo.